


storge

by maddy_does (favefangirl)



Series: Aaron Dingle Week 2020 [4]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Aaron Dingle Week, Canon Compliant, Family, Fluff, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Mild Angst, abuse sl, gordon mentions - Freeform, jackson mentions, robron - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26668966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/favefangirl/pseuds/maddy_does
Summary: The first night when Liv comes to live with him, Aaron wonders if he's enough.
Relationships: Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden
Series: Aaron Dingle Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1940446
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	storge

**Author's Note:**

> [Aaron Dingle Week 2020](https://aarondingleweek2020.tumblr.com/) Day 4 (15th Oct): “You’ll always be our baby.” and/or "I checked your wardrobe for monsters, but they're all scared of me."
> 
> big up @lizzzzoo @howellobrien and @like-the-first-time-i-kissed-you on tumblr for running this :)
> 
> i was originally gonna make this about seb, but i have other ideas for their relationship, so have liv instead

It’s cramped in the pub now, which is perhaps the least of everyone’s worries, what with a teenager suddenly showing up on their doorstep and demanding a place to live. Aaron had seen the looks everyone had given him when he’d agreed, the disbelief and the scepticism. He doesn't really blame them, he's hardly father material at the best of times, and he's not exactly at his best given everything. But Liv is his sister, and he’d seen the tentativeness in her eyes, that fear of rejection that he knew so well. He’d just been looking for a home, once, too. So of course he’d agreed. 

They’d had to call Sandra, obviously, but Aaron would have found a way even if she hadn’t been on board. He’d neglected his older brother duties in the past, to the point he’d not even recognised his own sister right in front of him, to the point Gordon was nearly able to turn her against him. And he could see the similarities in them, that same anger, that same vulnerability. Maybe it wasn't totally the same, Liv’s wasn’t born of the same trauma after all, but it was there - what's dealing drugs vs stealing wallets, anyways. Aaron couldn’t turn his back on that, that a part of himself,  _ her _ . 

He knows it isn’t going to be easy. Liv lives for trouble the same that he had when he’d rocked back up in the village all those years ago, and a teenager is a lot of responsibility for a twenty four year old. Plus, everything with Robert is so new and fragile, even in all the ways that it’s not. To lump in the stresses of looking after Liv with learning how to be with Robert properly, it’s a lot. Healing and moving forward is always a lot.

Still, family is family, and the Dingles are all about that, even if she’s not fully one of their own. Aaron knows they’ll look out for her all the same, even if just for him. He knows he’s not alone and that, in a way, makes this okay. Terrifying, probably stupid, but okay nonetheless. If one good thing can come of Gordon coming back into his life, it’s Liv hot on his heels, too.

Liv’s sitting on her bed when Aaron goes up to check on her. It’s late and actual room arrangements have been rushed on account of the fact that it’s an awfully small pub for so many people to be living in, but he hopes, eventually, it’ll feel like home for her. She looks so young in her bright pink pyjamas, cross legged, looking around half way in confusion and half way in awe at the room.

“ **I checked your wardrobe for monsters, but they’re all scared of me** ,” Aaron jokes, stepping properly into the room.

Liv rolls her eyes. “With your ugly mug, I’m not surprised.”

Aaron smiles at that, albeit a tentative thing. “You gonna be alright, yeah?” 

Liv pulls a face. “Yeah, ‘course.”

Aaron nods. He’d not expected anything less. “Well, if you’re not, know that I’m here for you, alright. Anything you need. We all are. You don’t have to be alone anymore, Liv.”

He doesn’t know if it's the best way to go about this - G-d, if there even is a best way - to tell her all the things he wishes someone had told him all those years ago, but it’s the best he’s got. He hopes it works better on Liv than he fears it would’ve worked on him. He was so angry back then, so repressed, he doesn’t think it mattered what anyone would’ve said to him. He doesn’t think anything would’ve been different. He just hopes Liv isn’t so stubborn that she cuts her nose of to spite her face in the same ways he did.

“You think I’m mad, don’t you,” Aaron asks Robert later. It hasn’t stopped feeling like a novelty having him in his bed yet. He wonders if it ever will.

“Yes,” Robert answers without hesitation. Aaron wonders if Robert’s thinking of Lachlan, he wonders if  _ he  _ is. “But I also think you’re amazing.”

Aaron scoffs at that. He’s not amazing. Amazing would’ve been saying something earlier, making sure Liv never ended up at risk of being in the same position. It would’ve been seeking her out, once things had settled, maybe after he’d come out and things were good with Jackson. He could’ve shown her that he was someone to be proud of, maybe shouldered some of the burden she’d carried with Sandra for all these years. 

He’s not amazing. He’s always been a coward.

“I’m serious,” Robert presses, rolling so that he’s hovering above Aaron. “You’re amazing. You’ve taken Liv in without hesitation, you’ve forgiven her, given her a home.” He smiles and it’s the softest, most beautiful thing Aaron’s ever seen. “Just like you did with me.”

Aaron doesn’t know if Robert means after the trial, but he’s thinking of Andy’s wedding, of how he said that people didn’t give up on him. It’s not a day he can think about for too long without feeling sick, but he thinks of that. Thinks of Paddy and his mum and the rest of the Dingle clan who put up with him long past when most would’ve given him up as a bad job and moved on. And that’s what he’s trying to do for Liv, isn’t it? Be there, not give up, try and make her achieve her full potential, or whatever a responsible adult would be doing. 

“It’s what you do, Aaron. You take people in, warts and all, and you love them into good people.”

Aaron huffs, blinks around the tears welling in his eyes. “Well don’t give yourself too much credit, not many people around here would call  _ you  _ good.”

Robert’s smile is still gentle, almost fragile. “Yeah, but _you_ would, because _you_ care.  _ That’s  _ why you’re amazing, because you care when most people would’ve washed their hands of someone.”

The tears are still there, streaking down his cheeks into his hairline, tickling as they go. Robert gently wipes at one with the pad of his thumb. “Yeah well,” Aaron says shakily, "it’s not entirely selfless.”

Robert’s smile turns almost instantly feral. “Well, I  _ am  _ amazing in bed.” Aaron laughs and smacks at Robert’s chest, the tensions in his own easing. “But you are amazing, remember that.”

Aaron knows it’s going to be hard, he doesn’t know the first thing about teenagers - or girls for that matter. But so long as Liv is safe, and knows that she’s loved, nothing else matters. Despite what Robert says, that doesn’t make him amazing, but, with a little time and nurture, everything else just might be. 

**Author's Note:**

> i _detest_ writing endings. how?? how does one do it??? 
> 
> i haven't always liked liv and aaron's relationship because it's often felt a little codependant so i've tried to write this as aaron being someone liv can rely on and lean on without him carrying her if that makes any sense?
> 
> anyway, if you wanna leave a comment or a kudos they're much appreciated! especially let me know if there's something you think i forgot to tag! i think i got the tenses confused in a few parts but hey ho, language and grammar are made up anyway :/
> 
> i'm taking prompts! if you're interested please drop the prompt in the comments below. if you do send a prompt be prepared for me to take fifty years to fill it because school is so hard (or, i guess, uni now, lol), but i promise i'll try! come say hi on tumblr: [@maddy-does](https://maddy-does.tumblr.com/)
> 
> thanks again for reading, have a wonderful existence.


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